Internal-combustion engine



April 3, 1928.

- I F. R. SMITH ET AL INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE Filed May 12. 1926 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 AWE/(Toes.- FQEOEEICK E SMITH 5mm M, MALE 1, mm QWM ,W I 4,4 9

April 3, 1928.

F. R. SMITH ET AL INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE Filed May 12. 1926 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 /-ve-nres.- FQEOEQICK KSMITH m SPIRITO V/ALE br I OLOLQLXNI BWau LmlM Patented Apr. 3, 1928.

UNITED STATES FREDERICK ROBERTSON SMITH AN D SPIRITO MARIO VIALE, OF COVENTRY, ENGLAND.

PATENT OFFICE.

INTERNAL-COMBUSTION ENGINE.

Application filed May 12, 1926, Ser'ial No. 108,647, and in Great Britain May 16, 1925.

This invention relates to internal combustion engines in which a plurality of cylinders, is arranged radially around the crankcase, and it has for its object to provide an efiicient means for employing a blower or supercharger.

According to this invention, the side of the blower casing adjacent and attached to the crank case is recessed and contains therein a detachable carrier plate, the transmission gearing for the blower being located in the recess and wholly or partly supported on the plate.

In the accompanying drawings, which illustrate a preferred methodof carrying out the invention,

Figure 1 is a section on the axial plane of the blower and its associated parts,

Figure 2 is an end view as seen from the left of Figure 1, the upper half of the adjacent part of the blower casing being cut away to show interior parts, and

.Figure 3, to 'a larger scale than the foregoing, is an axial section of the stationary plate employed in connection with the transmission gearing.

The blower comprises a transversely divided circular casing 2, 3, containing a fan 4 adapted to be driven at a speed considerably above that of the crankshaft (not shown), and this casing is adapted to be secured to the back of the crankcase, i. e., to the end 5 remote from that from which the power is taken off.

The casing, near the centre, is shaped to fit the fan in the well known manner, and

its circumference is formed so as to constitute an annular passage 6 of suitable dimensions into which the mixture is delivered at a pressure above the atmosphere, if necessar through a ring of bafiles 7 to prevent ed 'es. From this annular chamber branch pipes lead off to the cylinders. For example, the blower casing may be a casting with cast elbows 8 to which are secured to the cylinders, and, if desire to each elbow there may be attached two pipes for two cylinders, or a single Y shaped pipe 9, so that the number of branches on the casing is less than the number ofcylinders- The back of the casing, i. e., the side next to the crankcase, is recessed as atlO and contains the caring which is preferably arpipes leading by a stationary platelet, or partly by each,

as is shown and preferred. For example, there maybe three gears 13 all meshing with the pinion 12, and thelaxes of the three gears are arranged equidistant from one another in acircle. The plate 14 is bolted or otherwise fixed to inwardly projecting lugs (not shown) located at positions on the blower casing around the edge of the plate between the peripheries of the wheels 13. and the gears lie between the plate and the casing.

Integral with the gears 13 are pinions 15 which mesh with a large central gear wheel 16 mounted on the plate 14, and on the opposite side thereof from the three gears. This .large gear wheel is concentric with the blower axis, and also with the crankshaft, and it is adaptedto be engaged with the crankshaft and driven by it.

For example, this central gear may be extended laterally as at 17 and formed with internal teeth 18 which are driven from a pinion on the crankshaft (neither of which is shown), preferably through some floating clutch member.

Thus the blower and its gearing form a complete unit easily fitted to and detached from the crankcase, and the blower unit is concentric with the crankshaft, so that the delivery pipes from the blower to the c '1- inders are symmetrical and of equal lengt s, iiesulting in even distribution to the cylincers.

If desired, the fixed bearing plate 14 may carry abearing 19 for one end of the blower spindle 11, the other bearing thereof being carried in the remote side 3 of the blower casing. Thus the bearings for the blower are widely spaced. For the ample support of the central gear 16, this may be mounted on one side upon a roller bearing 20 on the stationary plate-14, and the centre of the plate might be extended in the form of a central stem 21 carrying at its end a second bearing 22 for the central gear, thereby prohollow boss 27 may support bearings 28 for the-spindle of a gear wheel 29 employed to transmit the engine drive to the magnetos through the shaft 30. The wheel 29 gears with a central wheel 31 fast with the gear 16, and has fast with it a wheel 32 engaging with a pinion 33 fixed on the shaft 30.

Thus a simple and etficientarrangement of the supercharger and its gearing is provided.

\Vhat we claim as our invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is 1. In an internal combustion engine haing radial cylinders, the combination of a blower mounted coaxially with the engine crankshaft and attached to the crankcase, acasing enclosing said blowcr adjacent and attached to the crankcase, a recess in the side of said casing adjacent said crankcase, a detachable carrier plate within said recess, and transmission gearing for driving said blower supported by said plate, said transmission gearing being supported on spindles mounted in hearings in the casing on one end and in bearings in the carrier plate on the other end, substantially as set forth.

2. An internal combustion engine as claimed in claim 1, in which the blower casing is surrounded by an annular passage communicating with that around the blower periphery and having connected to it equally spaced around its periphery delivery pipes connected with the engine cylinders, substantially as set forth. W

In testimonywhereof we have signed our names to this specification.

FREDERICK ROBERTSON SMITH. SPIRITO MARIO VIALE. 

